Presidency on Ireland assistance for AsgiSA

21 September 2006

Ireland is ready to assist South Africa in achieving the Accelerated Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) goals. This was said by the
visiting Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michael Martin,
at a meeting with Deputy President of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and
the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Elizabeth Thabethe, in Cape Town
today (Thursday).

Ten years ago, Ireland was almost at the same position as South Africa is in
today with high unemployment and a lot of unsuitably skilled labour.

“We had a lot of interventions and experiences that have paved our economic
growth and that we are willing to share with South Africa,” said Minister
Martin.

The Deputy President will be visiting Ireland in November this year to meet
with a range of people from Government, business and the higher education
sector with the aim of promoting AsgiSA and the Joint Initiative for Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

“One thing that seems to have worked for Ireland is the unity of purpose
among Government, business and the training institutions. The training sector
ensured that they developed skills directly needed by the industry. As
Government we asked the industry to state what skills they needed and together
we ensured the development of those skills,” continued the Irish Trade
Minister.

South Africa is interested in learning more about entrepreneurship,
Information Communication Technology (ICT), manufacturing and tourism among
others.

“We would like to have some high powered business leaders and tertiary
educators accompany us to Ireland for them to interact with their counterparts
in order to see how the Irish have managed a turn around in their economic
situation. I think that would be a fantastic manner of learning best practice
for us all to win in the end," said the Deputy President.

Many Irish universities have a business and an industrial focus and they are
backed by particular companies. This model provides ready labour for the
industry and therefore foster economic growth, said Minister Martin.

“You cannot get away from investing in people if you want to succeed,”
stressed the two political Principals.

The Deputy President requested the visiting minister to encourage Irish
companies with business interests in South Africa, to look into sending locals
to Ireland for some period for exposure as part of the JIPSA programme.

Ireland, in the 1980s, also had a graduate overseas placement programme with
countries such as Japan. Ireland has benefited from such international
assistance in the past and now wishes to help South Africa's economic growth
attempts along the same successful road.

Enquiries: Thabang Chiloane (Spokesperson of the Deputy President)
Cell: 082 8888 783

Issued by: The Presidency
21 September 2006